Comment Reply

I agree with the comments that the family should not be blamed. Our experience with out daughter was that she lost 20 pounds over a period of time and was at a healthy weight. But something biologically must have happened because it started to become an obsession and led to anorxia and then bulimia. We used the Maudsley method to refeed and fortunately she returned to a weight that medicine (fluoxetine-60mg which is effective amount for this disorder according to studies) would benefit her. It was a miracle. This was very biological. We wondered often if we were in any way the cause and she repeatedly told us and the counselor and the dietician that it was not the case. I think she had gotten an inbalance in her brain due to not enough fats, or hormones or something we may never know but it turned her obsessive about calories, exercise, and everything else associated with an eating disorder. Her personality was lost and the eating disorder controlled her. After medicine which went from 20mg to 60mg fairly quickly we saw the daughter we had really lost 2 years prior to that. Looking back there were signs that we would never have associated with an eating disorder but realize now they were just the beginning. I think saying that borders have something to do with so many eating disordered patients is harmful to the parents and also may keep them from seeing how very important the biological part of it is. I need to add though that it is very important they are not underweight when given the medicine as studies have shown it is not as effective in underweight patients.